Keir Starmer suggests two-child benefit cap row is example of what taking ‘tough choices’ involves – as it happened

Tony Blair speaks with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer during an event for the former PM’s thinktank. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

5.51pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Keir Starmer has defended his decision to say that Labour will keep the two-child benefit cap because it needs to show its commitment to fiscal responsibility. Speaking in a Q&A with Tony Blair, Starmer suggested it was no good talking about being willing to take “tough decisions” in the abstract if he was not willing to take them in particular cases. Referring to the dispute, he said:

My first reaction is we keep saying collectively as a party that we have to make tough decisions. And in the abstract, everyone says: ‘That’s right Keir.’

But then we get into the tough decision; we’ve been in one of those for the last few days, and they say: ‘We don’t like that, can we just not make that one, I’m sure there is another tough decision somewhere else we can make.’ But we have to take the tough decisions.

Starmer was speaking after Jeremy Corbyn claimed Labour MPs were “seething with anger” over the decision. In comments to the shadow cabinet earlier, Starmer said working people would suffer if a Labour government lost control of the economy. (See 5.29pm.)

• Rishi Sunak’s migration bill “will have profound consequences for people in need of international protection”, a UN body has warned, as protesters greeted the arrival of the first barge that will house asylum seekers under government plans.

• Labour mayors are launching legal action to prevent the closure of railway station ticket offices across England.

Tony Blair (left) and Keir Starmer speaking together during the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change’s Future of Britain conference in central London. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Updated at 5.56pm BST

5.40pm BST

The Blair/Starmer Q&A was fascinating for anyone interested in Labour politics. They did not disagree on much, but to describe it as a love-in does not quite capture the uneasy hierarchy jostling that was going on. Blair is the most successful Labour election winner in the past half century, and he does not defer to others lightly. But, talking to Starmer, he was treating him with a level of respect he normally reserves for a US president. As Robert Shrimsley from the FT, and Tom McTague from the Atlantic suggest, it was quite a moment.

Maybe my imagination but I thought Tony Blair looked just a bit misty eyed as he effectively passed the baton to Keir Starmer at his Future of Britain conference. A clear anointing of Starmer as a worthy successor

— robert shrimsley (@robertshrimsley) July 18, 2023

I feel like I just witnessed some kind of peace agreement between Tony Blair and Labour: Starmer formally bringing Blair back into the fold; and Blair formally giving his blessing to Starmer’s Labour that they’re ready. A political laying of hands.

— Tom McTague (@TomMcTague) July 18, 2023

Updated at 5.47pm BST